Hearing assistance devices, including hearing aids, are electronic devices that provide signal processing functions such as wide dynamic range compression and output compression limiting control. In many hearing assistance devices these and other functions can be programmed to fit the requirements of individual users. Performance of a user's hearing assistance device, while the device is in the user's ear, is difficult to verify. Furthermore, methods that apply at low frequencies may well not work at high frequencies. The expense of measurement equipment, the time it takes to make the measurements, and the perceived complexity of the procedure, have all proven to be obstacles to widespread use of such measurements. However, such measurements may enable better programming of a user's hearing assistance device because each user's ear is different.